As Air Canada just learned, chatbots’ owners are responsible for their actions
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As Air Canada just learned, chatbots’ owners are responsible for their actions

If an employee of a company told you something wrong that cost you money, you could sue the company for damages. It’s the same with a chatbot. Here’s what happened. Air Canada features a customer service chatbot on its website. You’ve probably interacted with service chatbots like these on other companies’ sites — I researched…

“Do Not Reply” emails are offensive — and a missed opportunity

“Do Not Reply” emails are offensive — and a missed opportunity

Organizations email individuals all the time. The sender is often something like “do-not-reply@organization.com.” That’s a massive “screw you” to the customer, and it doesn’t have to be. Why do those “Do Not Reply” emails exist? There are lots of reasons that companies send emails from a “do not reply” address. The main one is some…

The LeafFilter saga, or how to use social media to clamber out of the gutter

The LeafFilter saga, or how to use social media to clamber out of the gutter

Sometimes a company doesn’t live up to what it has promised you. That can make you angry. What should you do about it? This post is about what happened when a company called LeafFilter disappointed me, and what I did about it. My father’s mirror I want to start by talking about my father. The…

Google chat support shows how intelligence and stupidity can coexist

Google chat support shows how intelligence and stupidity can coexist

I used Google’s chat support. The result was infuriating, because the support person didn’t listen. Humans doing support need to listen and use context — and you’d think algorithms could help with that, especially at Google. Here’s what’s happening. I just set up a new web site for my nonprofit, wellnesscampaign.org. The next step is…

UPS and its customers are slaves of its technology

UPS and its customers are slaves of its technology

UPS has the information about customers, locations, and shipments to be an amazing leader in customer experience (CX). It has the people, devices, and bar codes to turn the Internet of Things — of packages — into an artificially intelligent engine for customer delight. But based on my experience, UPS is the slave, not the master,…